Game-Two Comeback Against Castleton Leads to Doubleheader Split

DARTMOUTH, Mass. - After falling behind, 7-1 in game two, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth baseball team scored 11 unanswered runs to complete a 12-7 comeback victory over Castleton University Friday afternoon. Castleton began the day by taking game one, 6-4.

Junior Andrew Bryant and sophomore Jared Neikam each picked up four hits on the day and launched home runs for the Corsairs (11-13, 2-5 LEC), while the Spartans (6-15-1, 1-8 LEC) secured their first conference win of the season in game one.

GAME ONE
UMass Dartmouth led for most of the game, but a three-run home run off the bat of junior Evan Keegan in the seventh put Castleton up for good, as the Spartans hung on for a 6-4 victory.

Bryant was 2-for-5 with a two-run shot, while senior Chase Stafford finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Neikam also had two hits. Graduate student Tylor Arruda started on the mound and allowed just one earned on seven hits with seven strikeouts over six innings. 

The Spartans struck first in the third on back-to-back one-out doubles. 

UMass Dartmouth responded with two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings. Neikam ripped a one-out single to start the fourth, senior Zak Souza then singled and Neikam scored on an error by the right fielder. With Souza on second, Stafford singled to left to score Souza and give the Corsairs a 2-1 advantage. 

With freshman Devyn Vezina on after a base hit, Bryant crushed his team-leading sixth home run to center to extend the lead to 4-1.

Castleton cut its deficit to 4-2 in the sixth with an RBI single. Keegan then stepped up in the seventh with two runners on and sent a three-run shot over the left-field fence for the difference in the game.

GAME TWO
Freshman Scott Cromack was 3-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored, while Neikam hammered his first-collegiate home run. Vezina finished 2-for-4 with four RBI, and Bryant had two hits and two RBI. 

The bullpen group of senior Mike Solitto, sophomore Chase Carey, freshman Adam Maher, and graduate students Logan Maitland Ryan Bruning combined for 6.1 innings without allowing an earned run. Carey earned the win and it was the first appearance this season for Maitland, who is a welcomed edition to the Corsairs pitching staff.

After falling behind 7-1 after four innings, UMass Dartmouth quickly got back into game with three runs in the fifth, and four in both the sixth and seventh innings.

With the bases loaded in the fifth, freshman Chase Pariseau and Bryant each walked, and Perron singled in Cromack to cut the deficit to 7-4.

Four runs scored in the sixth on an RBI base hit by Parseau, a two-run double off the bat of Vezina, and a single up the middle by Bryant to score Vezina and give the Corsairs an 8-7 lead.

The final four runs all came across in the seventh. Neikam led off the inning with a home run, Cromack singled in Stafford, and Vezina drove in Cromack and sophomore Matt Tempone with a double.

Maitland threw the eighth in his first inning of action this season and forced a groundout, popout, and finished the frame with a strikeout.

UP NEXT
UMass Dartmouth travels to No. 15 Tufts on Monday for a doubleheader at 12 and 2:30 p.m.